MBCT Brief Body Scan

A brief body scan practice lead by Lisa Graham, an accredited CBT therapist, supervisor and trainer with the BABCP.

Transcript

In beginning,

The body scan.

Just choosing a posture or position that will be comfortable for you to be in for approximately 20 minutes.

You may wish to lie down on the back,

The arms a little away from the body,

The legs either straight or bent at the knee.

It's also okay to lie on the side or to sit in a chair.

And sometimes you may wish to do the body scan standing.

The intention of the body scan is to learn,

To pay attention to body sensations.

Physical sensations in the body.

Noticing what's present for you in each moment.

And learning to skillfully engage the attention.

Explore sensations and feelings and then shift attention around the body.

So beginning the body scan by allowing yourself to be comfortable and undisturbed.

Ensuring that all parts of the body including the head are supported.

Being in a place where you feel warm and undisturbed.

Allowing your eyes to gently close.

And taking a few moments to get in touch with the movement of your breath.

Noticing the in-breath and the out-breath.

And now bring your awareness to the physical sensations in your body.

Particularly the sensations of touch or pressure where your body is in contact with the mat,

Bed or chair.

Reminding yourself of the intention of this practice.

It's not to feel any different.

It's not to feel relaxed or calm.

This may or may not happen.

Instead the intention of the practice is,

As best you can,

To bring awareness to any sensations you detect as you focus your attention on each part of the body in turn.

Bringing your awareness to the physical sensations in the lower abdomen.

Becoming aware of the changing patterns of sensations as you breathe in and out.

You may wish to place a hand on the abdomen to help you notice the physical sensations of movement.

Taking a few moments to become aware of the changing patterns and sensations and to feel the sensations in the abdomen and the hand as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

Having connected with the sensations in the abdomen,

Bringing the focus or spotlight of your attention down the left leg,

Past the knee and the calf into the left foot and then to the toes of the left foot.

Bringing a sense of gentle curiosity to investigate the quality of sensations you perhaps notice in the toes.

Perhaps a coolness or a warmth.

Contact with the sock.

Perhaps the air moving around the toes.

Perhaps there's no particular sensations and that's fine.

Being with and noticing what's present for you.

And then allowing the spotlight of your awareness to broaden,

To take in the toes,

The sole of the foot,

The heel of the foot and any contact with the floor.

The top of the foot and also the ankle.

Aware of what sensations are present for you now.

And breathing into the foot.

Really noticing and on the out breath releasing.

Letting the focus shift to the lower left leg.

The calf and the shin.

Moving the awareness around this area.

Noticing sensations both on the surface and internally.

Breathing in and really noticing what's present.

And then on the out breath.

Letting this focus go to shift to the left knee.

Allowing any sensations in the left knee to be noticed.

Before then shifting the awareness skillfully up to the left thigh.

Allowing awareness to move around this area of the left thigh.

Being mindful to sense sensations present.

Rather than describe or chatter to yourself about the sensations.

See if it's possible to discern this difference.

Being with sensations in the upper leg.

Moving the awareness across the pelvis and down the right leg.

Into the right foot and the right toes.

Bringing a skillful curiosity to investigating.

What sensations if any are present in the right toes.

Perhaps it's possible to notice the gaps in between the toes.

The temperature of the toes.

And then again allowing the awareness.

Broaden out to notice the sole of the right foot,

The top of the right foot.

The contact with the floor,

Perhaps the heel and the ankle of the right foot.

Holding all of these sensations in awareness.

Or no sensations if that's the experience for you.

Remembering there is no right or wrong way to practice the body scan.

Taking time to intentionally direct,

Sustain and then shift attention through the body.

On an in-breath breathing into that right foot.

And on an out-breath releasing and shifting the awareness to the lower right leg.

The calf and the shin.

Exploring and examining what's present here.

Perhaps contact with the floor or chair.

And then skillfully moving again to become aware of the knee.

And shifting attention to notice sensations in the upper right thigh.

Aware of both surface sensations and deeper sensations.

Aware perhaps of contact with the ground or chair.

Seeing if it's possible to bring a gentle curiosity and interest to examining the sensations present for you.

And if you notice that the mind wanders,

That's fine.

This is what minds do.

And our invitation is for you to acknowledge when you notice the mind has wandered.

Acknowledge where it wandered off to.

And then skillfully bring the awareness back,

Back to the body.

Back to sensations.

Back to noticing the sensations in the upper right leg.

And sometimes when we practice the body scan there may be pain or discomfort.

The invitation is to see if it's possible to gently and curiously work with the edges and corners of pain.

Notice where it is and where it isn't.

See if it's possible to breathe into.

And notice the pain.

To breathe out from.

Letting the pain be allowing things to be here that are already present.

Getting the attention now from the upper right leg to the abdomen.

Aware of sensations present in the abdomen.

And you may find aversion or difficult sensations when focusing here.

So always using your own sense of safety of what's right for you.

And at any time,

Knowing it's okay,

To shift the awareness and attention back to the breath and the breathing.

Developing the breath as a steady anchor to moment to moment awareness.

So directing the attention to the abdomen if that feels okay for you.

The contact of clothing or the floor.

Perhaps internal sensations of hunger or satiety.

And then sweeping your attention around to the back.

Exploring the lower back.

The coccyx.

Moving the awareness into the mid back.

The upper back and the shoulders.

And then allowing the awareness to move down both arms.

Past the elbows.

Into the hands.

Aware of noticing the fingers and thumbs on both hands.

What sensations are here?

What can you become curious of in this present moment?

You may choose to have a very narrow focus on just one finger or the tip of the thumb.

You may choose to have a broader,

Wider focus on all of the sensations in both hands.

Seeing if it's possible to be playful in noticing these sensations.

Playful in directing your attention.

Exploring sensations.

But then skillfully shifting attention.

From the hands.

Through the wrists.

Into the lower arms.

Exploring and examining the sensations now in the lower arms.

The elbows.

And then the upper arms.

Back to the shoulders and then see if it's possible to take the awareness.

To the chest.

To sensations present for you now.

In the chest area.

You may notice the rise and fall with the breath.

You may be able to perceive the gentle beating of the heart.

Not striving or forcing sensations to be noticed.

Seeing if it's possible to gently be open to any sensations that are noticeable for you.

Moving the awareness.

From the chest area.

Up towards the neck.

Examining and exploring.

What you can notice in the neck area.

The front of the neck and the back of the neck.

And then noticing sensations.

In the head,

Perhaps the contact.

The chair.

Or the floor.

Any sensations in the scalp.

And then sweep the awareness down to the tip of the chin.

What's here?

Aware of the lips now.

The inside of the mouth.

The teeth.

What's it like to be aware of the tongue?

Skillfully now shifting the attention to the nose.

From the tip of the nose.

To sensations in the nostrils.

Sweeping the awareness now to the brows.

Then the eyes.

Noticing the eyelids.

Any sensations around the eyes.

And then skillfully moving awareness to the ears.

Aware of any sensations on the flaps of the ears.

Perhaps hair.

Perhaps the air moving around the head.

And then awareness of any sensations within the ears.

Where all the vibrations around us are translated into a multitude of sounds and meaning.

Shifting the awareness now to the very top of the head.

And I invite you to imagine a hole the size of a 50 pence piece at the very top of the head.

And the invitation is to breathe in through the top of the head.

Sweep the awareness through and down the body.

To then breathe out through the tips of the toes.

And then breathe in through the tips of the toes.

Sweep the attention and awareness through the body upwards.

To then breathe out through the top of the head.

Breathing in through the top of the head.

Sweeping the awareness through the body.

And out again through the tips of the toes.

Continuing with this sweeping motion.

If that suits you.

But equally,

If it doesn't,

Allowing the awareness to rest with the breath.

And the sensations of movement of your breath.

Moment to moment.

And once you have scanned the whole body in this way.

Spending a few moments now.

Feeling the body as a whole.

And feeling the breath flowing freely in and out of the body.

And feeling the breath flowing freely in and out of the body.

Reviews

Excellent! Clear instructions with good rythm. The audio quality is not the best but the scan was amazing. Fastest 20 minutes ever! Thank you and have a great day!

Nice rocking of the body at the end, sweeping the breath from the head to the toes and back

Ah the body and the wandering mind ... Always a good practice

Good complement to my MBCT training. Thank you!

Thank you, it was relaxing and soothing.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Gentle, calm and relaxing. Thank you.